Stocks climb, gold suffers as rate-hike worries ease

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares rose broadly worldwide on Friday, with strong technology stocks and a retreat in Treasury yields lifting Wall Street, while gold had its biggest weekly loss this year as investors shrugged off concerns about interest rate hikes.

FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., February 21, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The dollar edged higher as investors positioned for a more aggressive Federal Reserve to raise U.S. interest rates three times this year.

In its semiannual report to Congress released Friday, the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors looked past a recent stock market sell-off and inflation concerns, saying it sees steady growth continuing and no serious risks on the horizon that might pause its planned pace of rate hikes.

“Certainly bond yields pulling back today is helpful for stocks, at least for the short term; that has been the narrative that is out there - that higher bond yields are weighing on stocks,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird in Milwaukee.

“So moving away from that, for today at least, provides a bid for equities.”

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes US10YT=RR were last up 14/32 in price to yield 2.8678 percent, down from 2.917 percent late on Thursday.

Gains in the dollar pressured the euro. The dollar index .DXY rose 0.16 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.29 percent to $1.2293.

Broader concerns have lingered globally over the last few weeks, including how far and fast U.S. interest rates may rise and what that would mean for global borrowing costs, risk appetite and business confidence.

Market prices are reflected in a glass window at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan, February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

The spotlight will be on new Fed Chair Jerome Powell next week when he faces questions from both houses of the U.S. Congress in semi-annual testimony starting on Tuesday.

His audience will include investors who unceremoniously greeted his early tenure with one of the fastest 10.0 percent falls in Wall Street stocks in history this month.

Gold’s spot market price XAU= dropped 0.2 percent to $1,328.97 an ounce. It shed about 1.4 percent this week, its biggest weekly decline since early December.

“We remain somewhat cautious on gold over the short term given that we think the dollar rally is still not over, especially in the light of U.S. Treasury yields remaining elevated,” said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir.

Oil prices rose to their highest in more than two weeks, supported by the shutdown of the El Feel oilfield in Libya and upbeat comments from Saudi Arabia that an OPEC-led effort to cut stockpiles is working.

U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 1.26 percent to $63.56 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $67.30, up 1.37 percent.